Chapter: The wrecked hopes of the village hidden behind the waterfall !!!

They were now standing in a valley behind a huge waterfall.
It was evening and the red and gold sunset was breathtaking.
But this time the eyes of the young shinobi from Konoha were not fixed on the sunset.
In front of them was the village behind the waterfall. Anyway, that's what they believed.
The huge gate had only one wing, the other was a few meters away in a thousand rubble. It was cold down their spines as they entered the village in the shadow of the gate. There was rubble everywhere and none of the houses was still standing. There were signs of a struggle everywhere. But nowhere were corpses, or at least anything human, to be seen.
But there was enough blood spatter on the floor, in the houses and everywhere on the walls for an entire village, as Kiba so sensitively put it.
After all, they had looked around every house, searched every single corner for survivors, and turned everything upside down until they were sure there was no one left."Guys, I don't like that here, we should get out of here!" Shino warned.
"I don't like it either, but can you tell me where else we're supposed to go. We're not going to the agreed meeting point with this guy from the ground tonight anyway!", Sasuke said, concentrating on keeping his voice an octave higher which he failed, however. This whole thing wasn't just super weird, no, it really scared him.
When he looked into the faces of the others, he could see in their eyes that they were no different.
"Maybe ... should we stay here?" Hinata said carefully.
"Wiseo that?" Asked Shikamaru. When Hinata said nothing, Sasuke nodded encouragingly.
"Um ... well, in the forest we would be more unprotected than here and we could finally rest and maybe we can find something to eat.", Hinata said uncertainly.
Shika's mouth fell open. He should have thought of that. He was the strategist here, after all!The proposal was unanimously accepted and soon afterwards a campfire burned in their midst. They had found a little more meat and bread, enough so that there was enough for everyone.
Sasuke stared, staring into the flames, thinking. What could have happened here? Was it Naruto or was it someone else involved? Where was Neji and had something happened to him?
The questions haunted his head the whole evening until Kiba informed him that he had to shake it vigorously until the Uchiha heard him that he wanted to take the first watch.
Sasuke then fell into a restless sleep and nightmares of an abandoned, destroyed city, dead people, blood and corpses haunted him. Then he was finally shaken awake by Shikamaru and took over the watch.
He put a little more wood in the fire and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. For a while he sat like this and watched the others who slept calmly and peacefully or, as in Kiba's and Shikamaru's case, snored.For a while his gaze rested on Hinata, who moaned and winced a few times in her sleep. She didn't sleep particularly well either.

Sakura woke up in the dark. She could neither move nor could she have a clear thought at the first moment. What happened How did she get here and, above all, where was she?
"Well my Sleeping Beauty? Finally awake too?", A deep voice penetrated her ear from the darkness.
And two red-hot eyes flashed before her.
In the next moment it went black again around her.

"Aaaah !!!"
Sasuke was woken up by a scream. He sat up in surprise and looked around. When everything was no longer blurry in front of his eyes, he saw Hinata, who had stood up and was pointing at something. The others were also all startled and looked just as perplexed and dazed as Sasuke.
When Sasuke saw what was there, he jumped up and ran as fast as he could towards it. Then he stopped moving.
After a few seconds, Hinata and Kiba came up behind him."Hey ... Sasuke what is wrong with you? What is dd ...?", Kiba asked until his voice failed him.
There in front of them were two headbands. The Konoha symbol shimmered on both of them, in the gold of the rising sun and in the red of the pool of blood in which they lay ...
Suddenly Sasuke turned around and let his gaze wander over her bed. And he saw exactly what he feared:
Shino was gone!
...

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hope you like it, even if it took quite a while this time ^^ I am already in the stress of school again! * twist your eyes *
so see you next time ^^